Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
ZOOZ290
This invention relates to visual display systems.
One technique of displaying material, such as is
employed in business meetings or seminars, is to use
an easel. Typically, easels are formed of a
supporting frame which rests on the floor, and which
in turn mount a frames or supporting surface against
which writing pads or like material can be secured.
When a user writes on the material, since it is in the
form of a pad, a page may be flipped or turned over
the top of the easel to be temporarily or permanently
displaced to permit access to other pages.
In many cases, users will also desire to refer to
material which was previously created and to gain
access to material which has been turned over, the
user must normally stand to the side of the easel to
lift up the pages turned over the top of the easel.
The typical pad or material structure that is
used for easels is a bound pad provided with binding
at the top. This pad is held in place by clips or
clamps or other similar ways so that each individual
page may be readily lifted up from the bottom of the
pad over the top of the easel. Such pads are normally
composed of paper for writing with markers or the like
and are supplied in sheets of 10 to 50 pages bound by
a binder at the top of the pad.
Likewise, easels either have triangular or
rectangular mounting feet which require such easels to
be spaced apart from a wall. Even if a supporting
structure were provided which permitted the easel to
be placed closer to a wall structure, the conventional
easel use requires that the pages be turned over the
top of the easel so that placing the structure against
the wall would have little or no advantage in as much
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as access still has to be provided for permitting the user to
retrieve pages which have been turned over the top of the easel.
With the present invention, Applicant has developed a system
for display material, for mounting the same and as well, a new
type of pad structure which permits adaptability to a wide
variety of circumstances.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention
there is provided a display system for visual display purposes,
comprising: at least one display pad; a supporting structure
adapted for supporting the pad, the supporting structure having
cooperating releasable retaining means at a top edge adapted to
releasably hold the pad; the pad having spaced opposed sides and
comprising a plurality of sheets of material and means at one of
the spaced opposed sides securing the sheets together; first
retaining means at the one of the spaced opposed sides of the pad
and second retaining means at the other of the spaced opposed
sides of the pad; perforation means adjacent the securing means;
the first and second retaining means adapted to cooperate with
the releasable retaining means of the supporting structure for
alternative support the pad with either of the spaced opposed
sides at the top edge as desired; wherein the sheets may be
detached from the releasable retaining means and lowered when
mounted with the one side at a lower part of the supporting
structure, and wherein the sheets may be detached at the
perforation means when mounted with the other side at the lower
part.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present inven-
tion there is provided a display pad having a plurality of dis-
play sheets suitable for mounting on a display or supporting
structure, the improvement wherein the pad includes means for
securing the sheets together along a first side; first means for
releasably securing the pad at the first side to a supporting
structure adapted to mount the display pad, and second means for
releasably securing the pad at a second side spaced from and
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opposed to the first side, to the supporting structure; per-
foration means adjacent the securing means; whereby said display
pad may be mounted on the supporting structure alternatively with
one of the first and second sides at an upper edge of a suppor-
ting structure and wherein individual pages of the pad may be
releasably detached to permit a page to be lowered while still
retained by the securing means when mounted with the first side
at a lower edge of the supporting structure, and wherein indivi-
dual pages may be removed from the pad at said perforation meanswhen mounted with the second side at the lower edge.
In preferred forms of the invention, two or more display
pads can be utilized in the system in which each pad has dif-
ferent characteristics for writing and/or displaying material.
More particularly, such pads can be sheets or normal writing
paper or graph paper; alternatively, such pads may be formed of
a thermoplastic or like material which may have erasable charac-
teristics as well as static properties.
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In one particular embodiment, a display system of
the present invention will include a pad of normal or
conventional paper or graph material and a second pad
of differing characteristics in the form of a
plurality of sheets of thermoplastic material having
erasable and/or static properties.
The pad structures of the present invention are
of a special construction compared to conventional
pads. As noted above, conventional pads may be
provided with a binding which may be a heavier gauge
paper, or cardboard binding placed over one end of the
sheets and stapled together or otherwise provided with
means for securing the binding to the pad.
In contrast to the conventional products, the
pads used in the present invention are characterized
by not only having a binding or similar structure
provided at one end but also, at an opposed end or
side with at least one and preferably two apertures
for mounting of the pad on the supporting structure.
Typically, during use, the apertures of the pad will
be mounted at the upper or top part of the supporting
structure, meaning that the binding of the pad is at
the lower or bottom end of the pad and supporting
structure so that in use, once a page has been
finished with, it is merely permitted to fall
downwardly as opposed to being turned over the top of
the supporting structure as in convention procedures.
Thus, in preferred pad structures, one end of the
pad is provided with means for retaining the plurality
of pages composing the pad and such means may be a
binding or adhesive, stapled or other suitable means.
The pad of this invention is thus characterized by
being provided with apertures at the opposed side of
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the side of the binding, which in effect, permits
mounting of the pad in an upside down manner. This in
turn permits the pages to be lowered while being
retained by the binding or adhesive joining the pages
together.
For various types of applications, and depending
on the size of the pad, two or more apertures are
normally preferred. Such apertures are conveniently
spaced inwardly from the side edges and end or top
structure of the pad so as to avoid premature tearing
when mounted on the retaining means of the supporting
structure.
Another preferred form of the present invention
is where the supporting structure comprises a planar
supporting surface which in turn, can function as a
functional surface besides forming the mounting for
the pads. Such a supporting surface would typically
be of a size larger than the pads and may be formed
from suitable materials such as rigid wood or particle
board, solid plastic sheet material, or the like. If
it is desired to provide a functional surface for the
supporting structure, the surface of the material will
be such that it may be provided with erasable
characteristics - e.g. as in the case of a plastic
surface and moreover, it can be provided in various
colours to provide a contrast, if desired, with the
writing pads which are otherwise mounted on the
supporting surface.
The supporting structure may also be a frame of
suitable material, e.g. metal or wood, in which the
supporting structure will include the releasable
retaining means on a frame component for mounting the
top of the pad. A suitable frame structure may be a
rectangular frame with one or more intermediate frame
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s
members extending between the outer frame to provide
the desired supporting area for a pad.
It will be understood that in place of utilizing
apertures in the pads at the end opposed to the end of
the pad which is bound, special pins or the like can
be used to permit the pads to be mounted in
cooperating engagement associated with the supporting
structure. For example, such pins could extend
through the plurality of pages forming the pads into
cooperating apertures or receiving means associated
with the supporting structure so that each page can be
removed, one by one, from the pad by disassociating
the page from the pin structure while at the opposed
side or end of the pad structure, the binding or other
means for securing the individual pages will still
retain any page removed from the pin structure
integrally with the pad.
The supporting structure may also include
suitable means for retaining and/or storing
conventional implements used with such display systems
- e.g. a storage or supporting shelf for erasers,
markers, pens or the like. Such storage shelves can
be releasably secured, if desired, for mounting to the
supporting structure on one or more sides of the
supporting structure, e.g. the top or bottom.
The structure of the present invention has the
advantage that it can be mounted either releasably or
in a fixedly secured manner to any appropriate
substrate or wall structure, and as well, may also be
used with any conventional easel frame structure.
Thus, by utilizing a display system in which the pages
of the pad are permitted to fall by gravity at the
front of the device, there is no need to provide a
space or gap behind the device so that in the present
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case the supporting structure can be directly
associated with a substrate or wall surface.
Even when using the supporting structure of the
present invention with conventional easel frames, the
display system still has the advantage that the
individual pages of the pads are permitted to fall or
project downwardly, thus avoiding the necessity of
having to go to the side or even behind an easel to
gain access to previously turned over pages for
further display purposes.
Having thus generally described the invention,
reference will now be made to the accompanying
drawings illustrating preferred embodiments and in
which:
Figure 1 is an exploded view of a display pad
system according to the present invention;
Figure 2 is shows a perspective view of the
display system of the present invention mounted for
use; and
Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 showing
the display system in use.
Referring now to the drawings, a display system
of the present invention is shown in which a
supporting structure is provided as indicated by
numeral 10. The supporting structure comprises a
substantially rigid sheet material, which may be in
the form of a wood panel or a laminate structure. In
the embodiment shown, this structure is provided with
a plastic surface which has the capability of
receiving marker pens and at the same time being
erasable once use of the surface is finished with.
The supporting structure 10 is of a generally
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rectangular configuration but its shape may change for
various applications.
A particularly preferred system is illustrated in
the drawings which comprises a first pad 20 which is
in the form of a plurality of sheets, typically 50 or
so, of opaque or white thermoplastic material, e.g. a
polypropylene material. These sheets preferably
have, in addition to being capable of receiving
marking ink, a "static" property which enables them to
be written on, removed from the pad 20 and placed on a
supporting surface, e.g. wall, where they will stay of
their own accord by virtue of their static properties.
The pad 20 includes a conventional binding 22 at
the lower end, which fixedly secures the sheets of
individual pages or layers together. If desired,
according to another embodiment of this invention, two
or more spaced apart apertures 24 may be provided
extending between the front and back surfaces of the
binding 22 and through the individual pages of the
pad.
In pad 20, if desired, a first or facing sheet 26
of a clear transparent material of any suitable
plastic may be provided so that pad 20 may also
function as a "bulletin board" using the static cling
properties of the underlying sheets. To this end, by
virtue of a transparent cover sheet 26, and with the
static properties of the underlying sheet, a notice,
sheet or the like can be "adhered" to the underlying
sheet beneath the clear facing sheet so that its
writing is visible. This is illustrated in Figure 2
of the drawings, where there is provided an outermost
transparent sheet 26 overlying a plurality of
individual sheets 28 of thermoplastic opaque material
and with a notice in the form of a sheet 32 bearing
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indicia beneath the transparent sheet 26.
The structure of the pad also includes, at the
opposed or top end, a pair of spaced apart apertures
34 which are located inwardly from each of the top and
side edges. These apertures may be of any suitable
size and typically may be from l/8 to 3/4" or more,
being adapted to receive cooperating mounting means
associated with the supporting structure.
As shown in Figure 1, the supporting structure
further includes a pair of projecting pins 36 which
are arranged on the supporting structure lO in a
spaced apart manner so that the apertures 34 are in
registry with the pins 36 when the pad is placed on
the supporting structure 10.
In this manner, the arrangement shown in Figures
2 and 3 is achieved, where it will be seen that the
binding 22 of the pad is located at the lower end,
with the pad being actually mounted on the supporting
structure via pins 36. In this manner, each page,
including the overlay page 26, may be lowered to fall
beneath the supporting structure 10, thus exposing a
fresh surface for writing and/or display purposes.
A second pad 40 of a different structure, e.g.
plain paper is also provided as a separate entity.
This pad has a similar structure to that described
above and thus includes a pair of spaced apart upper
apertures 42 adapted for mounting via the pins 36 to
the supporting structure 10 and as well, a binding 44
for retaining the lower end of the pad together so
that the individual sheets are not readily separable.
In the pad structure shown above, the pads may be
provided with lines of perforation 46 extending
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adjacent to or at the edge of the binding on the front
of the pad so that if desired, individual pages of the
pad (for either or both pads) may be removed.
The supporting structure 10 may also be provided
with means for storing or retaining accessories and to
this end, a suitable shelf 50 may be provided. Shelf
50, in the embodiment illustrated, may be removable by
suitable means - e.g., shelf 50 may include a channel
at its rear face to permit it to be slidingly engaged
with cooperating pins or the like fixedly secured to
the supporting structure 10. Such cooperating pins
may be provided at the top as well as the bottom of
the structure 10.
The above described system thus includes three
functions - the surface of the supporting structure 10
becomes a marking board which may be erasable to
accept various types of markers; the system utilizes
one or more pads as a "flip chart" which are
distinguished by their structure enabling individual
pages to be lowered beneath the structure 10 and as
well, by providing a transparent cover sheet, the
system also functions as a bulletin board which
securely retains any notice adhered to the static
cling pages by virtue of the transparent cover sheet
being secured at the top and the bottom.
